A Sunwing flight from Halifax bound for the Dominican Republic was forced to land in Bermuda Friday night because three passengers refused to stop smoking on the plane, CBC News has learned.

The Bermuda police service said they were called to the airport around 9:55 p.m. local time to meet Sunwing flight 454, which was on its way to Punta Cana.

Police said they boarded the plane and arrested the three smokers.

"It appeared to be a father, a mother and a son. The parents appear to be in their 50s. The son, I believe, is around 22 or so," said acting Insp. Paul Simons.

Dave Shellington's wife was on the plane. He said she texted him to tell the story.

"They were smoking in the plane's washroom and when they came out they got into a little bit of an argument with the attendants. They couldn't say where they put their cigarette butts and that caused a bit of a commotion, I guess. From there it kind of escalated with the father, the mother and the son," said Shellington

He said his wife said there was a lot of screaming and swearing.

Simons said he couldn't confirm the family's nationality or if they had also been drinking, but said they were co-operative when they were removed from the plane by police.

They were taken to the police station and have since been released on bail.

The flight was grounded overnight and the crew and passengers were put up in a hotel.

"The flight was also grounded so that a Canadian-trained mechanic could inspect the aircraft for undetermined reasons," Simons said.

The flight was rescheduled to leave on Saturday.

The family has been ordered not to leave the island and their passports and travel documents have been seized by the Bermuda police.

They have not been officially charged.

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Crazy Causes For Flight Diversions

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It's a good idea to wait until everyone's fully seated on the plane before getting intoxicated. Justin Neil Frank, a 35-year-old Calgary man was arrested after forcing an Air Canada flight from London to Calgary back in August. CBC reports Frank was drunk when he boarded the plane and kept drinking throughout — that is, when he wasn't walking down the aisles claiming to be an oil executive (he works as a rig service electrician). He was later tied down to his seat with duct tape and straps and arrested by the RCMP when the flight landed in Edmonton.

In late August, a United Airlines flight en route to Geneva, Switzerland from Newark, New Jersey was forced to divert in Boston because of an... ordinary camera. Well, to be fair, police and airline crew thought the unclaimed camera could potentially be a bomb, which is why the 169 people on board had to be removed from the plane while bomb technicians disposed of the camera.

The most recent restriction to flying has been the limitation of liquids, gels and aerosols to containers no greater than 100 ml or 100 grams. Combine this with a prank call and you've got the fixings for a bomb scare. Last September, a passenger was victim of a bomb hoax when someone called police at Philadelphia International Airport informing them that a passenger was "carrying a dangerous substance", as reported by USA Today. The passenger's name matched with someone on board a flight bound to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The plane was forced to return to Philadelphia where police arrested the passenger, only to release him after realizing he had done nothing wrong.

Back in January of 2010, a US Airways flight leaving New York and heading to Louisville, Kentucky had to divert to Philadelphia due to a misunderstanding over a teenager's prayer box. The 17-year-old Jewish boy was flying with his sister when he started using his tefillin, a set of small black boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, attaching one box to his head and the other to his arm, according to Fox News. Crew members of the flight questioned the boy but weren't able to get a "clear response" and asked the plane to turn back to Philadelphia for a more thorough investigation.

What can only be interpreted as a big misunderstanding is also the reason why a partially blind 86-year-old-man caused a Spirit Airlines flight from California to Florida to be diverted to Houston back in July. The man, who only spoke French, became unruly and started swinging at passengers because he was "scared," reports Canada.com

Back in May, a French woman managed to divert a US Airways flight from Paris to North Carolina after claiming she had been surgically implanted with a device. Flight 787 landed in Bangor International Airport unexpectedly after Lucie Zeeko Marigot, 41, said she had something inside of her that was "out of control" and was travelling to the U.S. to seek medical help from President Barack Obama and the American people. Marigot was never charged by U.S. authorities but was sent back to France, according to U.S. Attorney, Thomas Delahanty II.

What was supposed to be a normal flight from North Carolina to Chicago resulted in a diversion after a fight broke out between two flight attendants on board a United Airlines plane. Raleigh-Durham International Airport received an early morning call from the pilot of Flight 1214, saying that there was an assault on board, according to News.com, when it was actually a verbal argument between two stewards. When the plane returned to North Carolina, the attendants were removed and the plane was restaffed.